Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft corporate VP of Modern Life, Search, and Devices introduces a new AI-powered Microsoft Bing on 7 February 2023. Photo: AFP/Jason Redmond
Some members of the Tech Giant collective (aka The Big Five – Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft) are embroiled in an AI war of sorts, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT is at the centre of the battlefield.
Since ChatGPT took the world by storm late last year, academics have been clutching their degrees and talking about a ‘cheating pandemic‘, while journalists the world over fear for their jobs.
Meanwhile, the biggest tech players are vying to stay ahead of the artificial intelligence (AI) curve. This power struggle was kicked into gear when OpenAI opened ChatGPT to the public.
Not to be outdone, Google announced Bard on Tuesday, an AI chatbot powered by a lightweight version of the company’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA).
Now Microsoft confirmed it would include OpenAI’s next-generation language model in its search engine, Bing.
The model used to power the “new Bing” is said to be more powerful than the standard ChatGPT.
The language model will be customised specifically for search, according to Microsoft:
“It takes key learnings and advancements from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5 – and it is even faster, more accurate and more capable.”
But wait, there’s more! Microsoft said it also developed a “proprietary way of working with the OpenAI model that allows us to best leverage its power”.
This model is collectively known as Prometheus and will give users “more relevant, timely and targeted results, with improved safety”.
Not only will this give a much better user experience, but applying AI to Bing’s core search algorithm will also produce more accurate and relevant search queries.
“These groundbreaking new search experiences are possible because [we have] committed to building Azure into an AI supercomputer for the world,” Microsoft said.
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Users can sign up for the waitlist by going to Bing.com. However, certain functions are live to the public already.
It still needs to be refined, though.
For example, Bing suggested the following scenario: If you need to create a 3-course menu, you could potentially say:
“I need to throw a dinner party for 6 people who are vegetarian. Can you suggest a 3-course menu with a chocolate dessert?”
However, when prompted to ‘try it on Bing’, the only search results served to me included news about how Microsoft is adding AI to its search engine.
It took a while for the new AI-powered Bing section to load. But we got there eventually once the algorithm sprung into action.
The screenshot below shows the chatbot-generated search results. (View image here: Microsoft’s Bing)
So, in short, you might have been fooled by several headlines that Bing will be the next ChatGPT. We’re really not there yet…
But it is, nevertheless, a step in the right direction.
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The models currently available are by no means perfect.
AI is, after all, only as clever as the humans who use it. That said, OpenAI has been implementing safeguards to curb the creation of harmful content.
This includes misinformation and disinformation, as well as data safety and preventing the creation of discriminatory content.
Microsoft says: “The work we are doing with OpenAI builds on our company’s yearslong effort to ensure that our AI systems are responsible by design.
“We will continue to apply the full strength of our responsible AI ecosystem – including researchers, engineers and policy experts – to develop new approaches to mitigate risk.”
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